So abit of background on me - less than 12 months ago I thought the best life I could lead was to plod unhappily through the working week, treat myself with alot of yummy food (I love food, always have, always will) just for getting through each day and finally making it to the end of the week and celebrating with a few too many drinks and spending Sunday in bed eating plenty of greasy hangover food. The highlight of my week was definitely getting drunk with friends on a Saturday night!
Regardless of all the food I was consuming, I have never been 'overweight'. I had some extra lumps and bumps that I wanted to get rid of but mainly I was seriously lacking energy, general wellbeing and while I was never diagnosed with depression, I definitely had a depressed outlook on life.
It was the beginning of September 2011 when my life started to change. Knowing that I wanted to tone up abit for my wedding in April 2012, my sister Mel, who is a personal trainer, challenged me to take on a 12 week body transformation challenge through the gym she worked at. I have no idea why I agreed, I'd always hated exercise, I only did it because I loved food and didn't want to get 'fat'.
The challenge opened my eyes to so many things - that the best way to lose weight was not to starve myself but to fuel my body with nutrious and delicous whole foods and PLENTY of them (shock horror!). That the number on the scale doesn't matter, it's about how you feel and look. That slogging it out for hours and hours of cardio would not change my body shape. She taught me so much about food and exercise, I'll be forever grateful to her!
At the end of the 12 weeks, I did acheive some physical changes which I was stoked about.
- I lost 4kg on the scales
- I dropped 6.71% in body fat
- I lost 64.5cm around my body (which I found insane! I honestly didn't think had that much to lose!!??)
- I ran my first 10km fun run in 55 mins (from someone who could not run for more than 3 mins at a time)
I've had trouble deciding whether I was going to post my before and after pic in the fear that I'm going to be judged but here goes nothing! Before pic was taken in August 2011, after pic in December 2011.
However, the BIGGEST changes I found after the 12 weeks were completely internal.
I have SO much energy - I am bouncing out of bed to train 6am before work whereas previously I'd struggle to peel myself out of bed at 7.30am. I feel AMAZING! There's no way to properly explain how it feels to be fit and healthy but let me tell you it's the best feeling in the world! I am no longer feel depressed and am so much more positive than I have ever been (just ask those closest to me like my sister and husband!). I can actually say for the first time in my almost 27 years that I feel completely happy and comfortable in my own skin. And I completely changed my mindset about what makes life AWESOME. From being someone who NEEDED to drink every weekend, I went almost 2 months without a drop of alcohol and felt amazing for it.
There's a couple of reasons why I've chosen to blog about my experiences -
1. To keep myself accountable. Before our wedding I had a goal to work towards and while it wasn't the only reason why I have continued to live my life better, it was something that kept me going. Over the last 2 weeks since the wedding, I can feel myself giving in to foods and some of my old lifestyle choices and can already feel the impact it's having on my mind and body. So this blog is going to help me stick to my goals - which are not to be stick thin, but to be fit, healthy and happy - for life!
2. Is to educate others. Not sure if there is anyone out there reading this - but hello if you are! I'm hoping to use my posts as ways to pass on what I have learnt about food, exercise, weight loss and general well being. I may not be an ex-overwieght person who's lost a huge amount of weight and I'm by no means an expert and but if I can pass on something to someone out there that helps them change their mindset like I have mine, and in turn their life, than that's a good thing!
So that's it - first post done! If anyone is reading out there, hope you enjoy :-)
look at those changes! Well done Bec!!
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